Star Trek: Federation Torpedoes

Written: 1998.08.01 Last Revised: 1999.02.28

A Klingon watches helplessly as an aft-launched photon
torpedo approaches her ship

Photon torpedo yield: Warhead

It is difficult to estimate photon torpedo yields because there
has never been a substantive quantification of their output.
However, the TM indicates that a photon torpedo carries 1.5kg of
antimatter which presumably reacts with an equal amount of matter.
This allows us to determine that the upper limit for photon torpedo
yield is 2.7E17 joules (64.3 megatons),
since Einstein's Theory of General Relativity predicts that E=mc²

Naturally, Federation cultists use this figure as a benchmark,
assuming (for example) that if a GCS fires 10 photon torpedoes at a
ship, then the target vessel will be hit with 643 megatons of
energy. However, this is incorrect. The 64.3 megaton figure is an
upper limit, and not necessarily a realistic estimate. Upper limits
are extremely generous methods of estimation- for example, the upper
limit for a Death Star blast, based on the Alderaan explosion, is
well over 1E40 joules!. There are two principal assumptions
incorporated into this particular upper limit:

The antimatter within the torpedo
will react with matter at 100% efficiency. In other words, not one
solitary atom or subatomic particle of antimatter will escape and
be hurled out into space by the explosion.

All of the reaction products will contribute to the
destructive effect of the torpedo. In other words, every single
particle and erg of energy in the entire blast will directly affect
the target vessel, with no useless particles and no wasted energy.

Assumption #1: 100% Efficiency

The 100%-efficiency assumption is common among
Federation cultists, and they make this assumption so often that
they don't even seem to realize they are doing it! One will often
hear a Federation cultist saying that the yield of a photon torpedo
"is 64 megatons as dictated by the laws of physics"
even though the true of laws of physics only dictate that the yield
of a photon torpedo will be "equal to or less than 64
megatons". This is not a minor difference of
semantics- a theoretical maximum is just that: theoretical.
The true yield of a photon torpedo will be lower than this
because no process in ever 100% efficient, and it may
in fact be much lower. The principal reason for efficiency
loss is the fact that the atoms of antimatter and matter do not
react simultaneously- there is a reaction process which involves a
finite timescale.

How do we know that the
reaction isn't instantaneous? Besides the obvious fact
that everything in the universe occurs over finite timescales, the
TM states that the matter and antimatter are broken up into "many
thousand minute packets". Therefore, we can determine that
individual packets may be as small as 1 gram apiece. However, even a
1-gram packet will still contain more than 3E23 atoms of deuterium
or anti-deuterium (in other words, three hundred billion trillion
atoms). When the blocking field between matter and antimatter
packets is removed, the atoms in each packet will not experience
simultaneous reaction. Although the time delays between
individual reactions will seem infinitesimally small to us, they are
nonetheless finite and real.

OK, the reaction isn't
instantaneous. What difference does that make? Most
reasonable people are willing to accept that the reaction cannot
possibly be instantaneous, but many have difficulty understanding
why this would make a difference. The problem is as follows: the
atoms at the packet boundaries will be the first to react (starting
with electrons and positrons and moving on to nucleons and
antinucleons), producing highly energetic charged pions and gamma
rays. These initial reactions will rapidly superheat surrounding
(as-yet unreacted) portions of the matter and antimatter, imparting
large amounts of kinetic energy to surrounding matter. Successive
annihilation reactions will impart more kinetic energy to
surrounding atoms, until a point is reached where unreacted atoms
inside individual packets have so much energy that they can streak
out of the reaction area without contacting anything.

Why would energetic particles
escape? Normal matter (not the stuff of black holes or
pulsars) is mostly empty space. This is a fact that
physicists have been trying to explain to laypeople for decades,
with little success. There is an intuitive tendency, among the
average layperson, to cling tenaciously to the fact that ordinary
matter "feels" solid. It is easy for a physicist to state
that the atomic radius of a deuterium atom is roughly 0.46 angstroms
while its nuclear radius is less than 2 femtometres. However, these
sterile figures are often difficult for laypeople to intuitively
understand. It may be instructive to examine the nature of matter
from an everyday perspective. Toronto's SkyDome
sports stadium facility is a good example of a cavernous man-made
building. To those who have never seen this impressive structure,
the following facts may help readers imagine its size. SkyDome is so
large that the Roman Coliseum, St. Paul's Cathedral, or a 31-storey
apartment building could fit inside, even with the roof
closed. Eight Boeing 747 jumbo jets can fit on the playing field.
More than 60,000 people can be seated. The scoreboard alone
is more than three storeys tall. So, if SkyDome were a deuterium
atom, then how big would its nucleus be? It would be smaller than
a marble. Deuterium atoms are not unique in their abundance of
empty internal space. Even a far more massive atom, such as Au-197
(Gold, with 197 nucleons), has an atomic radius of 1.44 angstroms
and a nuclear radius of 6.23 fm. If Toronto's SkyDome were a gold
atom, its nucleus would still be smaller than a marble.
Hopefully, these example will illuminate the oft-repeated
physicists' statement that ordinary matter is mostly empty space.

OK, so there's more empty space
in an atom than I thought. What difference does that make?
Because matter is mostly empty space, subatomic particles or matter
and antimatter will not necessarily strike one another. In fact, the
only reason that they will collide with any great regularity
is the electrostatic attraction that will draw oppositely-charged
electrons and positrons (or protons and antiprotons) together. With
normal matter, there is electrostatic repulsion rather than
attraction, so protons almost never strike other protons,
except under extreme conditions (ie- nuclear fusion). However, if an
individual particle is moving quickly enough, the magnetic
attraction that should draw it to another particle will be
insufficient to alter its velocity enough to cause collision. A
reaction between a gram of matter and antimatter is nothing at all
like collisions in particle accelerators, because the particles will
be moving in random directions rather than being shot directly at
one another. As an example, take a proton which passes near an
antiproton. Even if it passes to within 0.1 angstroms (less than one
tenth the width of a typical atom), its electric potential energy
will only be -150 eV. It is therefore clear that if this proton and
antiproton were to possess, for example, 1 MeV of kinetic energy
each, they could very well hurtle by one another without being drawn
together by electromagnetic forces. At that speed, an antiproton
might very well be able to escape. In fact, current theoretical
studies of antiproton-based propulsion at NASA suggest that most
antiprotons will not react until they have thermalized
(slowed down), and that 90% of antiprotons at 500keV or higher will
fail to react with matter.

In conclusion, it is quite clear that the
matter/antimatter annihilation process is much more complex than the
simplistic "put two pieces together and they will completely
annihilate" assumption usually put forward by Federation
cultists. Unfortunately, we have no way of estimating what the
efficiency would be- we can only point out that it cannot possibly
be 100%. The DS9 TM seems to support this, by stating that standard
photon torpedo yield is roughly 18.5 isotons (a unit of unknown
meaning) while 25 isotons is the theoretical maximum. That would
suggest an approximate efficiency of 74%.

Assumption #2: All Reaction Products are Dangerous

On the surface, this appears to be an obvious, and
eminently reasonable assumption. However, the situation is more
complex than some people seem to think (simple solutions and simple
explanations are often wrong- this is a maxim of life in general).
In reality, much of the energy of a photon torpedo will be wasted.

The first, and most obvious example of wasted energy is
the random release of energy in all directions. A simple geometric
observation leads to the conclusion that a minimum of 50% of the
torpedo's energy will be wasted by radiating away uselessly into
space, away from the target vessel. Some Federation cultists have
proposed that the weapon may be designed to focus its energies
toward the target, much like a proton torpedo. However, we know from
numerous episodes (such as Q Who) that a photon torpedo detonation
can be extremely dangerous even to the ship which launched the
torpedo. This is canon evidence that a torpedo does in fact release
its energy in all directions, rather than focusing it all forwards.

A second example of wasted energy is the charged pion
production in a photon torpedo. A proton/antiproton annihilation
releases roughly 70% of its energy in the form of charged pions,
while releasing the other 30% as energetic gamma rays. A charged
pion will decay within nanoseconds into an electron and several
neutrinos. As a result, much of the charged pion's energy will be
useless. However, the charged pions will still travel a considerable
distance (several metres to several hundred metres) before decaying,
since they are often hurled away from a matter/annihilation at great
speed. Therefore, if a photon torpedo detonates directly against a
defensive shield, it can be assumed that the charged pions are just
as dangerous as the gamma rays. But if it detonates at a significant
distance (several hundred metres) away from the target vessel, then
a significant portion of the energy carried away by the charged
pions may be useless.

There are some disclaimers which must be applied to the
above statement- charged pions, like any charged particle, react
with matter because of electromagnetic interactions. Therefore, it
is inevitable that they will impart some energy to the photon
torpedo casing as they pass through it, but not all of their energy
because they will be moving too quickly to be entirely stopped.

In conclusion, it is clear that a photon torpedo can deliver an
absolute maximum of 32 megatons to its target, and the realistic
figure will probably be somewhat lower. This energy will strike the
target ship in several forms. The energetic gamma rays from the
matter/antimatter annihilation will strike the defensive shields
directly, but they will also tend to superheat the photon torpedo's
casing, which is composed of several hundred kilograms of matter.
This superheated matter, as well as energetic charged particles from
the matter/antimatter annihilation itself, will strike the defensive
shields at high velocities. The superheated matter will also emit
large amounts of so-called "thermal radiation"
(low-frequency electromagnetic radiation caused by the high
temperatures), which will strike the shields and create a brilliant,
blinding flash. The effect is very similar to that of a large
nuclear fusion explosion.

The overall impact of a photon torpedo on its target is therefore
an amount of energy, in the form of superheated matter, gamma
radiation, thermal radiation, and highly energetic subatomic
particles, which is less than or equal to 32
megatons in quantity for a direct impact, and as little
as 10 megatons in quantity for a
medium-proximity blast (decreasing with increasing distance, based
on the radius beyond which charged pions decay into useless
neutrinos). If we use the 74% efficiency estimate derived from the
DS9 TM, we can determine that a photon torpedo should deliver
roughly 24 megatons for a direct
impact and as little as 7 megatons
for a medium-proximity blast.

Photon torpedo yield: Kinetic Energy

Many Federation cultists claim that the theoretical high-sublight
speed of a photon torpedo can be used to calculate kinetic energy,
and that this kinetic energy should be considered in any photon
torpedo yield calculations. Typically, they claim that a torpedo
travels at 0.9c or even higher, so it carries hundreds or perhaps
even thousands of megatons of kinetic energy in addition to its
warhead yield. As usual, there are numerous flaws with this line of
reasoning:

If the high-sublight speed and
kinetic energy formulas are taken to their logical conclusion, then
the warhead yield is an insignificant fraction of the total energy
of the torpedo. This is a ludicrous conclusion; one would have to
question why the Federation would put warheads on their torpedoes
at all, since they require complex and damage-prone antimatter
loading and containment systems.

Federation sublight drives employ
a low-level variant of warp drive to propel starships at high
relativistic speeds without corresponding expenditures of energy.
Their kinetic energy is therefore also low (they cannot get a large
amount of kinetic energy with a small expenditure of energy- this
would be a violation of Conservation of Energy), most likely
because they have somehow reduced the "effective mass" of
their starships. This technology is also used on photon torpedoes,
in the form of a "warp sustainer" engine described in the
TM. Therefore, the kinetic energy of a photon torpedo is not
related to its speed, since it is propelled by a spatial distortion
rather than conventional impulse reaction physics.

The formula for the maximum speed
of a photon torpedo is v=vi+0.75vi/c, where vi is the launch
velocity, and there is a 75% boost available for torpedoes fired at
low sublight (ref TM pg. 129). However, maximum speed is a
nonsensical concept in space, where continued acceleration is
always possible provided that fuel is available. This is consistent
with a space-warp propulsion system rather than a conventional
impulse reaction propulsion system, and it is yet another
piece of evidence that the KE=½mv² formula cannot be
applied to photon torpedoes.

Photon torpedo speeds are greatly
exaggerated. Photon torpedoes invariably accelerate to a velocity
of a few kilometres per second relative to the launching platform,
rather than reaching high sublight speeds regardless of
launch-platform speed as some believe. They can travel at
superluminal speeds when launched from a ship at warp, but when
launched from low sublight platforms or immobile platforms such as
DS9, they invariably remain at low sublight speeds. The
velocity increase (relative to the launching platform) is
consistently in the range of 1-10 km/s, not 100,000 km/s.
This can be clearly seen in "Way of the Warrior" and "A
Call to Arms".

The low-sublight DS9 torpedoes
seen in "Way of the Warrior" and "A Call to Arms"
were just as effective as torpedoes launched from mobile platforms
such as starships. If the kinetic energy of a photon torpedo were
commensurate with the launch platform's velocity, the low-speed DS9
torpedoes would have been ineffective compared to torpedoes
launched from a mobile starship.

Without knowing the rate of acceleration, it is impossible
to determine how fast a photon torpedo is traveling by the time it
reaches its target. If a torpedo accelerates at the same rate as a
GCS (10 km/s²) and it strikes its target in 5 seconds, it will
only be traveling at 50 km/s. This would explain the relatively low
speeds seen in the episodes while being consistent with the high
speed claims of the TM. Given enough time, thanks to its
space-distortion drive system, a photon torpedo may indeed be
capable of achieving high relativistic speeds. However, those
speeds will be tactically useless, because of the long time
required to achieve them.

In conclusion, because photon torpedoes use a warp sustainer
engine rather than conventional impulse reaction engines to achieve
its speed, they do not possess the kind of kinetic energy that one
would normally expect from a torpedo travelling at high relativistic
velocities. Furthermore, their observed velocities in actual combat
are far lower than the claims being made on their behalf. We can
only assume that this must be yet another propaganda campaign on the
part of the Federation.

Other photon torpedo operating characteristics

According to the range figures
from the TM, photon torpedo operating range is from 15km to 4.5
million km. The minimum range of photon torpedoes is most likely a
safety restriction, much like the safeties on 20th century
submarine torpedoes.

Photon torpedoes can penetrate
and travel through the ground quite easily, as seen in several TNG
episodes when they "burrowed" underground. This allows
them to be quite destructive against planetary surfaces, although
this feature is of little use in combat against shielded starships.

Since no photon torpedo explosion
has ever destroyed a ship without assistance from a warp core
breach (which is inevitable in the event of a starship's
destruction), we can conclude that photon torpedoes are not capable
of vaporizing large starships as is often claimed. Instead, they
appear to do sufficient damage to destabilize the warp core. "Booby
Trap" was one of the few incidents in which an powerless
starship (ie- no functioning warp core) was hit with photon
torpedoes. In that incident, it required 5 torpedoes to destroy the
ship, even though it was unshielded.

Bird of Prey torpedoes are weaker
than capital ship torpedoes. In ST3, ST5, ST6, and ST Generations,
BOP torpedoes were shown to exhibit poor effectiveness against a
shielded or even an unshielded starship. The E-D survived more than
a dozen torpedo hits in ST Generations even though its shields were
compromised, and the E-A survived well over a dozen torpedo hits in
ST6, including several hits after its shields collapsed. Low BOP
torpedo yields are consistent with the Klingon commander's
statement in ST3 that "he outguns us ten to one".

The TM describes two types of photon torpedoes: an older,
lower-yield weapon used in the early part of the 23rd century, and
a higher-yield weapon used from 2271 up until the development of
quantum torpedoes in DS9. The original Enterprise was destroyed in
2285, which means that older torpedoes were used in TOS and newer
torpedoes were used in the movies and TNG. The torpedoes fired in
ST2, ST3, ST5, etc. were therefore similar to TNG-era torpedoes.

Photon torpedo tactical effectiveness

Photon torpedoes are roughly
equivalent to high-yield nuclear fusion weapons. We know that
shielded Federation starships can withstand nuclear explosions
(albeit with damage and radiation exposure to some crewmembers)
from "Balance of Terror". This indicates that a single
hit from a large nuclear weapon or photon torpedo could be expected
to penetrate a TOS Federation starship's shields, but several would
be required to destroy it. This is consistent with the pattern of
battle in TOS, where a single volley of photon torpedoes (only 2
torpedoes with the old TOS launchers) heavily damaged a fully
shielded Klingon warship in "Elaan of Troyius".

Photon torpedo accuracy is
excellent against targets which are either immobile or travelling
in a predictable path- a photon torpedo struck a 1.5 metre target
from 80,000km away in "The Changeling". This is not
surprising- active guidance systems like those in 20th century
cruise missiles correct and refine their courses as they approach
their targets so that the range is irrelevant to the accuracy (a
cruise missile has the same target accuracy from 10km away as it
does from 400km away). The same would probably be true for photon
torpedoes, which use active guidance systems.

In general terms, photon torpedoes have much longer ranges
than phasers and much higher power, but they are not very
maneuverable and are therefore not effective against highly
maneuverable targets (otherwise, why would phasers be used at
all?).

Federation starships fire torpedoes (and phasers) in STFC

Erroneous claims from Federation cultists:

They claim that photon torpedoes
executed 80 degree "snap" turns in "Shattered
Mirror", but large-radius turns can appear to be small-radius
turns if they occur at a great distance. If a torpedo executed a 90
degree turn over a 2 metre radius in "Shattered Mirror",
it would have appeared from the camera's distance that the torpedo
ricocheted off a solid object. There were large sweeping turns
executed in "Message in a Bottle" and Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country, and those turns do not indicate particularly
great maneuverability.

They claim that "Scorpion"
established the ability of a 5 million isoton explosion to affect
everything within a 5 light year radius. However, this is merely
another unscientific and nonsensical Federation cultist
claim. Even if the weapon released infinite energy, it could
not have propelled the nanoprobes into space any faster than c (or
even at c). This incident is teeming with flaws and
confusing statements. It was stated that the super-yield torpedo
would require 50 trillion nanoprobes, but a 5-light-year radius
sphere has an internal volume of 4.4E50 cubic metres. Therefore,
this theoretical torpedo would disperse its 50 trillion nanoprobes
so that there was one nanoprobe for every 8.9E36 cubic metres of
space! An 8.9E36 cubic metre volume of space is equivalent to a
cube that is over 2 billion km long on every side! At such high
dispersion, they would be lucky to hit a planet with a
probe, let alone a small ship.

They claim that an 83 isoton
weapon was capable of severely damaging Sisko's already-damaged
Jem'Hadar fighter at a distance of 50km. However, they were at a
distance of less than 1 km away from the weapon when it detonated,
not 50km. They were trapped inside the Dominion White drug
depot asteroid's shield and took the daring move of going to warp
just as the bomb detonated and the shield went off.

They point out that full-power
torpedoes destroyed a freighter in "The Ultimate Computer".
But we must keep in mind that an unarmed freighter is not exactly a
difficult test for a weapon system (not to mention the fact that
its detonating warp core undoubtedly assisted).

They point out that 5 photon torpedoes obliterated an
ancient Promellian warship in "Booby Trap". But we must
also remember that the Promellian warship had been subject to gamma
radiation bombardment for over a thousand years (remembering that
gamma radiation makes metal more brittle with time). If a photon
torpedo carried enough energy to totally obliterate an enemy ship
without assistance from its warp core, why then did the Enterprise
require 5 photon torpedoes to destroy the Promellian warship? The
answer is that the Promellian warship, unlike most targets, did not
have a functioning warp core that could detonate and aid in its own
destruction, so the Enterprise was forced to use 5 torpedoes. The
same holds true for any other situation where a photon torpedo
destroyed a vessel- in every case, significant energy was
contributed to the explosion by the vessel's warp core. The
ancient, brittle Promellian vessel was different because it did not
contribute to its own destruction.

Quantum torpedoes

Quantum torpedoes are newer than photon torpedoes, but the
fundamental differences and operating principles are as yet unknown.
The DS9 TM states that quantum torpedo yield is roughly 50 isotons,
while photon torpedoes are limited to a theoretical maximum of 25
isotons.

Since the theoretical maximum yield from a photon torpedo is
roughly 2.7E17 joules, this would suggest that a quantum torpedo's
yield is roughly 5.4E17 joules (129 megatons). We don't know whether
quantum torpedoes will suffer from the same process inefficiencies
that affect photon torpedoes, so the most conservative approach
would be to assume that their full yield will be released as
destructive energy. Of this, less than half (64
megatons) would be directed against the target. This
represents an effective upper limit to the energy that can be
delivered to a target vessel by a quantum torpedo.

The new quantum torpedoes appear on paper to be much more
dangerous than the old photon torpedoes, but they are not yet being
used exclusively throughout Starfleet. Either they are very
expensive and difficult to produce, hence the slow deployment rate,
or they have some weaknesses with respect to photon torpedoes,
making the decision more difficult than it would seem. Even though
their yield appears to be superior, there may be extenuating
circumstances; perhaps their range or accuracy are decreased. The
quantum torpedoes in STFC were all fired at close range, and they
didn't even try to use one against the fleeing Borg sphere, which
was heading directly toward Earth and which could not have
been more than a few thousand kilometers ahead of the E-E. They did
not fire upon it until after it entered a stable orbit, and they
were able to approach to extreme close range.

The Enterprise-E fires several quantum torpedoes

Conclusion

Photon torpedoes and quantum torpedoes both release energy equal
to large nuclear fusion weapons. Star Wars shields have been
designed to withstand such weapons- in fact, starfighters routinely
fire directed-energy nuclear weapons at capital ships with little or
no effect. The ROTJ novelization specifically describes a
thermonuclear explosion immediately outside Admiral Ackbar's bridge
window in the opening minutes of the Battle of Endor, which was
undoubtedly caused by a fighter-launched missile since the capital
ships of the two fleets had not yet engaged in battle. This
explosion had negligible effect upon Ackbar's vessel, which is of
course what one would expect. We project that our Star Destroyers
should be able to withstand roughly 1000 photon torpedoes or 370
quantum torpedoes before losing shields. This estimate is based on
the ISD shield strength of 1E20 joules determined in the Imperial
shield analysis.

However, those torpedoes are almost certain to strike our
large Star Destroyers repeatedly in spite of their poor
maneuverability, because Star Destroyers have slow turning rates
(and are very large targets). Also, we project that our TIE fighters
will suffer heavy (but acceptable) losses if the Federation uses
proximity-fused photon torpedoes against them.

It is our belief that the historically short combat lifespan of
Federation vessels is due to inherent design flaws in those vessels,
primarily their use of metastable power generation technology which
is prone to catastrophic failure due to system damage. While their
starships have been designed and optimised for very short-duration
confrontations, all Star Wars Imperial warships were designed for
prolonged survivability in combat. It is this design philosophy that
gives us our primary advantage over the Federation- we can simply
outlast their vessels by continuing to absorb and release punishment
after their vessels succumb.